Lot 975: Two Samuel Bak Signed Surrealist Serigraphs

Two (2) Samuel Bak (United States/Israel/Poland, b. 1933) surrealist serigraphs. 1st Item: Serigraph titled The Four Windows, c. 1970. Alternating images of an elderly, bearded man and the moon or a planet appear in four stone windows. Signed in pencil, lower right and numbered 89/200, lower left. With Pucker/Safrai Gallery, Boston, MA label affixed to backing. Housed in a rusticated giltwood frame with tan textile mat. Sight: 26 1/2 in H x 20 1/2 in W. Framed: 36 in H x 29 3/8 in W. 2nd Item: Serigraph titled Forever, after the artist’s 2005 painting. An assortment of wooden, stone, and other materials arranged on a stone slab before an expansive vista spell the words “still life.” Signed in pencil, lower right, and numbered 1/36, lower left. Housed under UV-filtering plexiglass in a dark wooden frame with white mat. Sight: 15 1/2 in H x 12 1/4 in W. Framed: 22 5/8 in H x 19 5/16 in W. Biographical Note: “Samuel Bak was born in 1933 in Vilna, Poland…Bak lived under Soviet and German occupation from 1940-44. Bak’s artistic talent was first recognized during an exhibition of his work in the Ghetto of Vilna when he was nine years old. While he and his mother were sheltered in a local convent, his father and four grandparents all perished at the hands of the Nazis…Bak studied art in Munich and later at the Bezalel Art School in Jerusalem after immigrating to the newly formed state of Israel with his mother in 1948…[Bak] has had numerous exhibitions in major museums, galleries, and universities throughout Europe, Israel, and the United States, including retrospectives at Yad Vashem Museum in Jerusalem, and the South African Jewish Museum in Cape Town. He has been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Bezalel National Museum in Jerusalem and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, and his work has been exhibited at Holocaust museums around the world. He has lived and worked in Tel Aviv, Paris, Rome, New York, and Lausanne. In 1993, he settled in Massachusetts and became an American citizen.” (Source: Samuel Bak Museum: The Learning Center, University of Nebraska, Omaha) Literature: Paul T. Nagano, SAMUEL BAK: THE ETERNAL ENIGMA (Boston, MA: Pucker/Safrai Gallery, Inc., 1971), front cover. Exhibition History: Samuel Bak: The Eternal Enigma; Pucker/Safrai Gallery, Boston, MA; Jan. 10-Oct. 11, 1971.

PROVENANCE: Estate of Florence F. Johnston, Knoxville, TN.

CONDITION: Overall very good condition, with strong colors. 1st item with minor waviness to sheet and marginal crease, center right. Not examined outside of frames.